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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24268306">Beyond the End</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PreseaMoon/pseuds/PreseaMoon'>PreseaMoon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe, Gen, vague time travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:40:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,423</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24268306</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PreseaMoon/pseuds/PreseaMoon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a boy from Gongaga with mako eyes and a scar on his cheek. The first time Cloud spots him he knows, but everything is wrong.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Beyond the End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Do I tag Crisis Core just because Angeal is here or? I don't really know how I'm supposed to tag the things for this fandom...</p>
<p>This was meant to be much shorter and lighter than it turned out. My bad? I don't know how to do those cool, compelling snapshot type fics. I also don’t usually write things like this. So. I apologize for the flaws… Plus Advent Children is kind of weird anyway, right...?</p>
<p>Lastly, I do get hung up on logistics but don’t grill me too much because I am literally making things up for the purpose of self-indulgence. Very cool.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Cloud sees him he’s on his way back into Edge from a job around the Fort Condor area. Not a particularly taxing job by any means, but a monotonous time consuming one that left him in an adjacent mental space by the time he was pushing through the final stretch of wasteland.</p>
<p>Being a courier, his job doesn’t tend to be physically demanding or mentally straining. Sometimes there’s an attitude on one end of a delivery, but it’s never something he can’t put up with. Plus, most people aren’t going to pick a fight with a guy carrying a sword that’s half their weight or more.</p>
<p>It’s just the way things are and Cloud isn’t about to find fault in it. To compensate for the relaxed turn of his life, the sins of his life weigh heavier, darker, with ever growing foreboding as they slip further into the past. His hazy memory burns every time he passes that particular cliff on his way. One flash and then another and another, each brighter than the last, his consciousness eclipsed by recollections too vivid to be deemed reliable.</p>
<p>Then, he’s back in Edge.</p>
<p>It only happens from time to time, but he knows even that is too often. He should find it more worrying than he does, but the most he can muster is some vague apprehension that this is how things will always be. Two years is barely any time at all, but the past three years of Cloud’s life might as well be its entirety. This abnormality barely registers as such. He can’t imagine how he would be otherwise.</p>
<p>In times like this it’s a convenience that cuts down on a dull trip. However, on this day it makes Cloud question his reality in a way he hasn’t for a long time.</p>
<p>Cloud slows down Fenrir as he approaches the outskirts and has to pull on to a proper street with other bikes and cars. It’s early, but there are plenty of people going about their business and children playing.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no reason why Cloud should take notice of him.</p>
<p>He just happens to be rolling his neck while traffic is stalled and spots black, spiky hair that sticks out among the mostly brown, flat hair in the group he’s with. Nothing about him is especially notable. Black hair isn’t uncommon, neither are spikes, though the slicked back style of them makes Cloud’s memories pulse to mirror them.</p>
<p>The spikes flop back in an orderly fashion, but a few frame his blue eyes that are as bright as the sky on a clear day. Those, too, aren’t especially uncommon, even combined with the hair. There might be a glow in them, but it could just be the sun.</p>
<p>The boy seems to be around Denzel’s age give or take a few years, not yet at puberty and imbued with the type of benevolent exuberance particular to children. Among the children who make up the group he’s part of the shorter half, and dressed in simple, drab but clean clothes that don’t set him apart from the rest. </p>
<p>The boy laughs in response to something another boy says, and even the way his mouth pulls up makes Cloud’s heart ache. From the distance he’s at he can’t hear, but Cloud pushes his heightened senses as far as they’ll go in an attempt to make it out. To no avail. The truth is, if there is a part of Cloud that could recognize Zack’s laugh, it’s likely dormant. He wouldn’t recognize it at all.</p>
<p>In fact, looking at the kid, who is a child, the more convinced Cloud is that he’s simply superimposing Zack on top of a random boy with a handful of shared traits.</p>
<p>Of all possible scenarios, that’s likeliest.</p>
<p>It’s also the most concerning.</p>
<p>Yet, Cloud’s eyes follow after him until the boy’s back is turned to him so he can chase after his friends as they move on to the day’s next adventure.</p>
<p>He remains on his mind all the way back to Seventh Heaven. It’s too early for the bar too open yet, but Tifa is behind the bar preparing.</p>
<p>She welcomes him back, and the tone of his answer must be wrong because she asks, “What’s up?” </p>
<p>It is both a nuisance and a relief that she can read him so well.</p>
<p>Cloud shakes his head at first, because he doesn’t want to make an issue out of nothing. This is him overthinking things. This is his psyche projecting itself on to the waking world, applying meaning where there is none. This is not something he needs Tifa worrying over.</p>
<p>	“What do you remember about Zack?” slips out of his mouth. Just the name leaves him cold, and he wants to take it back as if his hollow guilt is dependent upon acknowledgment.</p>
<p>Tifa blinks, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. She puts a finger to her chin as she thinks.</p>
<p>The seconds tick by and Cloud’s nerves urge him to walk away. Go up the stairs, into his room. Close the door. Throw himself in the unfinished book on his desk and ignore Tifa when she knocks on the door.</p>
<p>This is not something he wants to know.</p>
<p>Zack is a forever intangible concept. He exists in particles of fragments that, if they could be put together, would not amount to an individual. There is no one left who knew him well, and if there is, Cloud doesn’t know who they are or where to find them. All they have are impressions of glimpses.</p>
<p>There is who Cloud thinks Zack was and there is who Tifa thinks Zack was.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want to think of how they differ.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want to consider how mistaken his own perception is.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want to reflect on how empty Zack is in his mind, because his own interpretation is based on something like a flipbook instead of experience.</p>
<p>Tifa sets two glasses on the counter with more force than necessary, calling him back to the surface. Ignoring the pounding of his heart he forces himself to take a seat.</p>
<p>	“Well,” Tifa starts as she pours out the first drink, “he was maybe a little cocky, but he was really young at the time, too, wasn’t he?” She’s wondering aloud rather than asking.</p>
<p>Cloud realizes he has no idea how old Zack was. He was older than Cloud but he doesn’t know by how much. Is Cloud older than him now? For some reason the thought makes him nauseated but he swallows it back. “I think so?”</p>
<p>Tifa nods, closing her eyes, and he wonders if she’s picturing him as he was then. “He seemed young. Or, earnest might be a better word. He was kind, concerned about my wellbeing.” She opens her eyes to pour the second drink. “There was some distance, but he wasn’t cold at all.”</p>
<p>	“Distance?”</p>
<p>Tifa nods. “I don’t know what it was. Maybe because it was a job. Or maybe stress from being a high rank at such a young age. I didn’t really pay attention at the time, but looking back I think he was a little… tense.”</p>
<p>	“I see.”</p>
<p>Tifa pushes one of the drinks towards him. She looks at him with an apology in her eyes. “I didn’t really talk to him much. Neither of the SOLDIERs were you. So.” She shrugs and looks out the window. “I lost interest pretty quick. But he didn’t seem like a bad person.”</p>
<p>Cloud hums and takes a drink, focusing on the acrid burn of the alcohol rather than the turmoil churning inside him.</p>
<p>	“What made you ask?”</p>
<p>Cloud downs the rest of the drink and stands up. “Nothing really.”</p>
<p>He exits to his room without giving Tifa an opening to question or comment.</p>
<p>It would be so nice if that could be the end of it. Instead it’s the start of frayed nerves and the geostigma on his arm worsening to the point he can’t ignore it anymore. He’s left on edge, sleepless, scanning crowds for ghosts he knows he won’t find.</p>
<p>In a way it’s reassuring, because there is nothing. If there’s nothing, then it was all in his head.</p>
<p>But then, one day a couple weeks after the incident, he makes his way to the Sector 5 church and inside is the boy.</p>
<p>Cloud takes notice of him when he’s already halfway to the flowerbed. The kid is crouched in front of a pew that mostly obscures him but his hair is unmistakable and a few strands spring up. For a minute he just looks at him, waiting for him to disperse like a mirage because visitors aren’t normal for the church.</p>
<p>Sensing the eyes on him the boy turns, and he’s not startled or surprised by Cloud’s company in the least. Instead, he smiles and steps up on the pew.</p>
<p>	“Hey,” the kid says, and his smile brightens even as Cloud flounders.</p>
<p>Most of him is still catching up to the moment. There is a boy who maybe looks like Zack hanging out in the church Aerith frequented.</p>
<p>Maybe he is a ghost. Except he’s talking to Cloud when he’s supposed to be fading away.</p>
<p>The kid laughs, and it’s so abrupt it startles Cloud into thinking maybe he spoke that aloud on accident. He steps on to the rounded top of the pew, taking a moment to find his balance before bringing up the other foot. With ease he steps from one pew to another, making his way closer to Cloud.</p>
<p>	“What brings you here?” the kid asks.</p>
<p>Absurdly, Cloud’s first instinct is to deflect.</p>
<p>Finally, Cloud answers, “I wanted to be alone,” but finds his tone harsher than is probably appropriate. So he adds, “To think” without knowing if that actually improves anything.</p>
<p>Either way his brusque manner seems to bypass the kid entirely. “In that case, I guess we’ll be alone together.”</p>
<p>The boy walks to the edge of the pew so he and Cloud are a reasonable distance from each other, and as he nears Cloud gets a look at his eyes. It’s not that he’s looking to, it’s just that the radiant glow of mako in them is impossible to ignore. When he tilts his head the blue is almost overtaken so completely Cloud wonders if it’s a trick of the light.</p>
<p>And now that he’s closer Cloud sees a familiar scar on his cheek. It makes his heart stop for a split second.</p>
<p>	“Helloooo? Are you okay?” The kid has placed himself in front of him. With the pew as a step ladder he’s just above Cloud’s height. Meaning their eyes are left very close to level and it’s… a little disconcerting, actually.</p>
<p>Cloud blinks and steps away. “Yeah. Just. Thinking.” That truth sounds painfully weak to his ears but he doesn’t know how to make up for it. He clears his throat and walks closer to the flowerbed.</p>
<p>He is determined to not change his plans just because of some kid he’s projecting on.</p>
<p>What if that scar isn’t there at all? What if the mako glow isn’t either?</p>
<p>Maybe none of this is real.</p>
<p>Behind him the sound of the boy clambering across the pews again as he follows him forward is very real. One thud, two, four, until he’s plopping down to sit and swinging his feet. His heels scuff the worn floorboards. It’s like everything about him is trying to telegraph to Cloud that he is tangible and here.</p>
<p>“Do you come here a lot?”</p>
<p>Cloud shrugs and kneels beside the flowers.</p>
<p>Next thing he knows the kid is beside him, crouched and with his arms wrapped around his knees. He’s staring at the flowers intently. When he reaches a hand out Cloud almost wants to stop him, but he only brushes against one of the petals with the most delicate touch.</p>
<p>	“They’re beautiful,” the boy says softly, with tender appreciation. “There’s a lot of forest where I’m from. A lot of plants. Flowers, too, but none like this. I haven’t seen any in other parts of Midgar, though.” He pokes at the flower, and it sways easily while Cloud’s eyes narrow. “So it can’t really compare to back home, no matter how pretty they are.”</p>
<p>“And where are you from?” he finds himself asking, and is already mentally supplying the answer just as the boy answers.</p>
<p>	“Gongaga! It’s really far away, on the western continent. There’s a reactor, I mean, there was a mako reactor. Before. So… that probably says all you need to know about it.”</p>
<p>Cloud turns to look at him properly. Actually look at him. He can overlay the Zack he knew on him easily enough, but the boy is too young for it to amount to much. There is a resemblance, but he hasn’t grown into any of his features. It’s impossible to say whether they’re a match with Zack’s or he’s choosing to believe they are.</p>
<p>The scar, though.</p>
<p>The boy notices him staring and points to it. “Wondering about this? I got it in a fight.” He smiles sadly. “In a way, it’s a memento of someone dear to me.”</p>
<p>Cloud doesn’t know how Zack got his scar, or if he had it when they first met or sometime after. He’s not even entirely sure of when they met. It was before Nibelheim, but he’s not sure by how much. Was it months? Or maybe years? He wants to think it was years.</p>
<p>As Cloud is left at a loss how to respond to that statement a look of discomfort crosses the boy’s face. And the discomfort quickly shifts into pain as he presses an arm across his middle. He shuts his eyes, ducks his head, but still loses his balance and falls back to sit on his behind as he curls in on himself.</p>
<p>Cloud watches with growing unease. His hand positions itself to move toward him, but then he clenches it into a tight fist before he can act without thinking. Sometimes when someone is in pain touching them is the last thing you should do. Waiting to see what happens isn’t a much better option, but Cloud is far from a medic.</p>
<p>After a minute the episode passes and the boy flops to his back, throwing out his arms and panting. A hand is kept pressed to his side but Cloud doesn’t see any stains.</p>
<p>	“Are you alright?”</p>
<p>The boy swings up with surprising ease, but the motion is devoid of his previous energy. He swivels his head in Cloud’s direction but doesn’t look at him. There’s severity in his steady eyes that clashes with his youthful face so blatantly Cloud has to hold back a flinch.</p>
<p>	“I’m sick,” the boy says, sullen, disappointed, in the manner you would expect from a child but it doesn’t fit with the darkness of his expression at all.</p>
<p>Cloud swallows. His face is hot and his heartbeat feels steady but is thunderous in his ears. “With what?”</p>
<p>He already knows.</p>
<p>	“I dunno. A lot of other kids have it too, though.”</p>
<p>	“Geostigma?”</p>
<p>	“Angeal usually keeps it in check. So maybe it’s not even the same. Since it doesn’t bother me as much. Well, usually, anyway.”</p>
<p>Cloud frowns. “Keeps it in check?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah. It’ll still hurt from time to time, but it won’t, uh, get gross.”</p>
<p>Cloud absorbs that information. Or tries to. Geostigma isn’t curable and there aren’t viable treatments to mitigate its symptoms. People may trick themselves into thinking some remedy is having an effect, but in the end the stigma doesn’t go away. Chances are this kid just has a milder case that didn’t seem so mild when it first manifested.</p>
<p>From behind them a voice says, “There you are,” and Cloud is quick to stand up, instinctively putting a foot forward and angling his hand to reach for his sword quick and smooth if he needs to.</p>
<p>Just inside the church’s door frame is a man, broad shouldered and tall, with black hair slicked back. He’s dressed casually, except for the leather gloves and the standout sturdiness of his boots. His blue eyes are dark, a shade that might be considered dull if not for the glow of mako infused in them.</p>
<p>How suspicious is it to suspect any adult with mako eyes was part of SOLDIER by default?</p>
<p>Mako poisoning, and surviving mako poisoning, isn’t that common in comparison.</p>
<p>Besides, this guy carries himself like his body is a weapon, so confident of his abilities it doesn’t matter if something takes him by surprise. Cloud also should have heard his approach despite the distraction.</p>
<p>The kid, though, bounces to his feet at the man’s appearance like he wasn’t in pain a few minutes ago. His disposition brightens and he rushes to him, practically attaching to his side. “Angeal! I was wondering what was taking you so long.”</p>
<p>	“This isn’t a game, Zack.” The tone is stern but too fond for any sense of reproach to make it through.</p>
<p>But the name. There it is. Zack. Cloud’s entire body stiffens like he didn’t expect it, like there weren’t already a dozen different signs he’s chosen to disregard.</p>
<p>It’s just that there’s no way. Right? It can’t be.</p>
<p>Such a thing shouldn’t be possible, but how is it any more impossible than half the things he’s experienced in his life so far?</p>
<p>If this is the Zack he knows, then how. And who is this man? Why is Zack with him?</p>
<p>And… now that he’s getting a good look at him Cloud realizes he’s seen him before. In the bar of all places, more than once. He can recall Tifa serving him and making polite small talk on slower nights.</p>
<p>Now, he’s here, with Zack, and there is no way it’s a coincidence.</p>
<p>As much as he wants to, he can’t tell himself that this is all his imagination.</p>
<p>Just like that he feels intensely compelled to get Zack away from him. The situation is too vague for Cloud to feel content in Zack’s apparent trust and affection. Plus, if this man is attempting to treat his geostigma through home remedies there’s a chance he’ll end up harming Zack in the process.</p>
<p>Except, he has no idea how to do that. Or how he’d explain. Especially if Zack doesn’t remember him clearly. Kidnapping isn’t his speciality either.</p>
<p>After apparently appraising Zack and finding his condition satisfactory, the man—Angeal—looks to Cloud. His face is set in an unreadable grimace that seems to be appraising Cloud as well.</p>
<p>A few seconds later Angeal apparently comes to a conclusion. He takes a few steps forward, leaving deliberate space between them like it’s a gesture of goodwill. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him.”</p>
<p>	“Is he your son?” Cloud asks, just to see if he’ll agree because it’s been put out there.</p>
<p>	“No,” Angeal answers right away. He glances at Zack, who’s started the process of climbing his back. Once he’s made it up he tosses his arms around Angeal’s neck, half his face peering out from behind his head. “It’s a complicated situation, but I’ve been left in charge of him.”</p>
<p>Cloud crosses his arms. What does that mean? Is asking too hostile?</p>
<p>The silence lingers for so long the decision is taken out of Cloud’s hands.</p>
<p>Angeal nods once, says, “Again, you have my thanks. We have to be on our way, now.”</p>
<p>Zack chimes in with, “Nice talking with you. Let’s talk next time too, okay?”</p>
<p>Before Cloud can question or comment on any of that the two of them are gone, leaving him to stew in his thoughts like he meant to do from the beginning. Only know he’s ruminating over something much different than he set out to.</p>
<p>If that is Zack, why didn’t he just come out and say it? Or was all that hinting his way of doing so?</p>
<p>Did he want Cloud to call him on it?</p>
<p>It is something that edges into beyond belief, but it’s also not something just anyone would claim.</p>
<p>It’s possible it’s because of that man. For whatever reason Zack is clearly following his lead. If he’s up to something of course he wouldn’t want anyone interfering, but it doesn’t make Cloud feel any better about the situation.</p>
<p>The real test may be whether he shows up at the bar again now that he’s a known entity.</p>
<p>Was he keeping tabs on Cloud?</p>
<p>He is starting to feel paranoid, now, so he pushes down the circles his mind wants to run in and heads back home.</p>
<p>When he enters the bar he’s half-convinced he’s going to find Angeal seated at the counter, chatting up Tifa, waiting for his opportunity to tell Cloud how he expects things to go from here on. Instead, there are a few customers, mostly regulars, and none of them stand out.</p>
<p>Cloud almost goes to ask her about it right then, but decides it’s something he’d rather process a little more first.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Cloud does a poor job hiding that something is on his mind. That night and the following nights. At first Tifa lets him brood over it in peace, favoring keeping an eye on him and asking the occasional leading question to see if he’s ready to open up.</p>
<p>After Angeal doesn’t show for the next week, and he can’t decide whether that’s suspicious or not, he decides to finally ask. </p>
<p>He gives Tifa a general but specific enough description of Angeal, emphasizing the mako in his eyes. Tifa doesn’t have an immediate answer, which tells him all he needs to know. </p>
<p>Still, Tifa thinks it over, going over the newer regulars and notable one off customers. “I don’t think so. Don’t you think I would have mentioned it if I saw a customer with mako eyes?”</p>
<p>Cloud shakes his head. “I don’t know. Would you?”</p>
<p>	“Honestly… I’m not sure. Is this person someone we need to worry about?”</p>
<p>Only now that he’s about to admit it does the full force of how absurd he’s going to sound hit him. “Can’t be sure. Might be nothing.”</p>
<p>Tifa gives him a dubious look, not appreciating his obvious backing out. “Oh yeah?”</p>
<p>	“I met him around a week ago. He carried himself like a soldier, so maybe. But it could be nothing. He seemed… normal. Himself.”</p>
<p>Tifa watches him. “What else?”</p>
<p>Cloud tries but can’t stop himself from averting his eyes. At least he’s able to stop the automatic denial. He sighs. “He has this… kid with him.”</p>
<p>Tifa waits, lets him put his thoughts together coherently before jumping to conclusions.</p>
<p>It’s minimal help. Although he knows what he wants to convey, his body rebels against giving the words form. “The kid… I saw him before. A few weeks ago. Thought nothing of it at first. But that day, the day I saw them together…” He shakes his head, trying to focus and push through. “I talked to him and. I think he might have been Zack.”</p>
<p>Tifa’s brow furrows. “What?”</p>
<p>	“I think this kid is Zack,” he states plainly.</p>
<p>	“I don’t understand. Do you mean as in his son?” A bewildered expression sits on her face as she works out the potential math there. “That seems… unlikely.”</p>
<p>	“No. Not as in his son. I mean Zack. He looked just like him down to the face scar and mako eyes. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But I think it’s him, no, I know it’s him.” He looks to her in appeal, almost in desperation for her to believe him, because this is real. This is not in his head.</p>
<p>Tifa exhales softly, and doesn’t say anything. That’s all he needs to know she does not believe him, that she fears the worst.</p>
<p>	“You don’t have to believe me. But if you saw him…”</p>
<p>It must be something in his tone, because she gives a look like she thinks Cloud might kidnap this kid and bring him to her as proof, which he would never. He can think of almost nothing worse.</p>
<p>	“There’s no guarantee I’ll even see him again.”</p>
<p>	“Wait. Where exactly did you meet him?”</p>
<p>	“I first saw him around two months ago. A month later he was in the Sector 5 church when I went there.”</p>
<p>Tifa’s eyebrows rise at that. The church isn’t a popular location by any means, nor is it all that safe, especially for a kid. It clearly doesn’t make her more amenable to what Cloud is presenting, however.</p>
<p>It’s not proof, Cloud knows that, but it is something. Angeal also knew to find him there.</p>
<p>	“What do you think will come of this?” Tifa asks. “Whether it’s him or not.”</p>
<p>	“I… don’t know.” </p>
<p>Through all this time he’s spent so much time dwelling on the possibility and what it may mean that he’s completely overlooked what comes after that. Even if he is Zack it’s not like Cloud is entitled to anything, answers or explanations or a place in the life he’s carving for himself. He would never assume such a thing.</p>
<p>He’s just… acting irrationally. He’s not ready for Tifa to contest that.</p>
<p>He’s not ready to be told to leave it alone, and let Zack have this second chance at life in peace. Cloud is not part of Zack’s life. He never was, even before. They were friends in the loosest sense, in the way that a person like Zack would be friends with most he came across.</p>
<p>Of course Zack wouldn’t want to involve himself with the person he traded his life for.</p>
<p>Tifa sighs. “Maybe it’s something you should let go, Cloud. Don’t get hung up on it, don’t search him out, don’t… I don’t even know. Just let it be, okay?”</p>
<p>Cloud is quiet for a moment, and then he says, “He has it. Geostigma.” He doesn’t know why he says it. Maybe it’s just that he feels bad, that if Zack has been given a second chance, it’s been soiled by this damn disease.</p>
<p>	“That’s sad, but there’s nothing we can do. You know that.”</p>
<p>	“Yeah.”</p>
<p>There’s nothing to be done for anyone who’s been infected. Not Zack, not Denzel, and certainly not Cloud, whose own case is worsening daily. Soon he won’t be able to hide it at all.</p>
<p>Cloud doesn’t let it go, not really, but he lets the issue of Zack and Angeal stray to the back of his mind. There’s an influx of jobs to carry out. He leaves Edge more. Denzel gets sicker. So does Cloud. He throws himself into research, seeing if he can figure out a cure or… anything.</p>
<p>The most he does in regards to Zack and Angeal is keep a passive eye out for them when he travels to Edge. He also makes a point to stop by the church more, but he never meets up with either of them.</p>
<p>Over time Cloud’s geostigma only worsens. Attacks come more frequently, randomly, and to continue hiding it he has no choice but to leave the bar. He moves into the church because it’s the natural choice. It’s a location that puts him at ease as much as it makes his heart ache.</p>
<p>It’s also out of the way enough that if Denzel or Marelene ask around about him most people won’t have seen him.</p>
<p>Naturally, a few days into his stay at the church Zack shows up. He takes notice of Cloud’s bedroll and supplies but doesn’t comment on them. After that, though, he starts showing up somewhat regularly, every few days or so but never twice in a row.</p>
<p>They don’t always talk. Most times, in fact, they don’t talk at all.</p>
<p>Zack will sit before the flowers while Cloud goes about his business. Or they’ll sit there together like they’ve come to a mutual understanding already.</p>
<p>One day while they’re sitting, enjoying the silence, Zack says, “So you live here now, huh. You must like churches a lot.”</p>
<p>	“Not really.”</p>
<p>	“No?” He tilts his head. One way, and then the other, until he’s found the hole in the ceiling. “I bet it gets cold in here at night. You don’t even have a mattress. Or a pillow.”</p>
<p>	“You’re right, I don’t. And what about you, don’t have better ways to spend your days? You seem like a popular kid.”</p>
<p>Zack glances at Cloud and then lets his head hang. He shrugs. “I like it here. It’s peaceful. The flowers are important.”</p>
<p>Cloud frowns. “What does that mean?”</p>
<p>	“What do you mean what do I mean? They just are. You don’t think so?”</p>
<p>	“I mean, what makes them important?”</p>
<p>	“Flowers are always important, Cloud. Or did you forget, living in Midgar.”</p>
<p>Somehow, Cloud feels like he baited himself. “I never lived in Midgar,” is what he ends up saying, and he doesn’t know if it has any relevance to the turns this conversation has taken.</p>
<p>	“You didn’t?” Zack looks baffled by this information for some reason.</p>
<p>The more they interact the more unclear Cloud becomes regarding him. He acts like he knows Cloud but doesn’t commit to it, doesn’t admit to it. His overall demeanor is both childlike and too mature for a child, alternating without any real pattern. Cloud isn’t sure if he’s trying to portray himself as a child and forgetting or he just doesn’t care enough to maintain the act.</p>
<p>	“No. Even when I was there it was always meant to be temporary,” he says but falters towards the end. At the time he’d been playing it like he was just passing through. Though, if everything that happened with ShinRa hadn’t, he probably would have found an excuse to stick around anyway.</p>
<p>Tifa would have thought up another job for him, and Cloud would have accepted it regardless of the pay. He’s certain of it.</p>
<p>	“Huh. I guess that makes sense, right. Being a mercenary and all.”</p>
<p>Cloud hasn’t told him about being a mercenary. At this point it’s not reassuring, it just creates confusion, because he doesn’t know what Zack is trying to signal, if anything. Does he want Cloud to comment? Does he just want to let him know, and it’ll be part of their unspoken understanding?</p>
<p>	“If it were me… I would have stayed, I think,” Zack continues idly. His gaze has wandered back up to the hole in the ceiling, and Cloud looks at it as well.</p>
<p>	“And why is that?”</p>
<p>Zack spreads his arms, hands open, gesturing to their environment like it speaks for itself. “Because the flowers are beautiful. And important.” He turns to Cloud with a bright smile.</p>
<p>“You’d stay someplace for a single patch of flowers?”</p>
<p>	“That’s simplifying things.”</p>
<p>	“Is it?”</p>
<p>Zack shrugs and looks away. “Maybe.”</p>
<p>They like that in silence for a while longer. Then, Cloud says, softly, reconsidering the words as they leave his mouth, “Why are you here, Zack?”</p>
<p>Zack takes a long breath. “I dunno. Life is weird sometimes, you know? Where you end up rarely has anything to do with you or your choices.”</p>
<p>“What brought you here, then?”</p>
<p>	“I’m not sure. The lifestream, I think. That’s what Angeal says, but I don’t think he really knows either.” There’s a pause, and then he says, “I’m sorry, Cloud. If we’ve brought you trouble.”</p>
<p>Cloud looks away too. “Don’t worry about it. Trouble would find me with or without you.”</p>
<p>	“I’m sorry about that too.”</p>
<p>The weeks pass. </p>
<p>Tifa’s worried phone calls are answered less, and become less frequent as a consequence. Cloud doesn’t mind. It suits him fine if she thinks he’s chosen to drown himself in the past. It’s not even completely wrong, even if he isn’t truly seeking it out.</p>
<p>If Zack wants to haunt him he’ll accept that and face it head on. Or, you know, say he’s facing it and do his best to follow through.</p>
<p>One day when he’s on his way back to Edge after finishing a job he’s attacked by a couple of silver haired men. They call him their brother and ask where their mother is, as if Cloud will have any idea what they’re talking about. After he fends them off he finds a third on a cliff overlooking the road, except his attention isn’t on Cloud at all. Instead he’s wrapped up in a discussion with Angeal, who stands across from him with folded arms.</p>
<p>While Cloud’s seen Zack plenty since their first encounter the same can’t be said for Angeal. The man remains enigmatic and distant no matter what Zack says about him, to the point Cloud doesn’t really know how to delve into the topic. He feels like to ask about Angeal is to blow the carefully balanced lid right off and he hasn’t been ready for that.</p>
<p>Until now he’s let himself be pacified. Zack has displayed enough awareness for Cloud to believe he’s not being taken advantage of by a random man.</p>
<p>Cloud just wishes he had the chance to have a single proper conversation with him.</p>
<p>From the angle he’s at now he can't see Angeal’s face, but he can see the silver haired man’s. There’s a deep scowl on his face and does not seem happy at all about whatever Angeal has to say.</p>
<p>The unknown man throws out an arm as he takes a threatening step into Angeal’s space, which doesn’t seem to faze him in the least. He simply takes a step forward to meet the challenge.</p>
<p>Cloud can see the man grit his teeth, clench his first, but ultimately back down.Then, he climbs back on his bike and drives away, leaving a blur of dust behind.</p>
<p>Whatever just happened, the exchange leaves Cloud tense. Why were they together? Are they working together?</p>
<p>Angeal turns around, then, perhaps sensing Cloud’s eyes on him, and makes direct eye contact with him. He looks at him without expression, and then simply walks away. The interaction makes the strangest chill run through him, and he finds himself leaving Fenrir in the empty road to quickly make his way up the crags. Only, once he’s at the top Angeal is nowhere in sight.</p>
<p>There are three matching sets of tracks. He can’t see Angeal anywhere in the distance. He’s nowhere, but he was definitely here. Cloud knows that he was.</p>
<p>To the side the Buster Sword is lying rusted and forgotten on the ground, and Cloud flinches at the sight of it. He takes hold of it and sets it right, to act as the memorial it’s meant to be. As he does so he wonders if it’s even right to leave it here, knowing that Zack is in Edge. Would it be appropriate to give it to him when the sword is taller and heavier than him now?</p>
<p>It takes more deliberation than it should, but he leaves the sword where it is and continues on to Healen Lodge to meet with Rufus Shinra. The former president has eloquent words and proposals for alliances that aren’t needed and don’t interest Cloud in the slightest.</p>
<p>If Kadaj is a serious threat Cloud will have to deal with him sooner or later, regardless of Shinra and the Turks. There’s nothing for him to gain from partnering up with them. Except, maybe one thing.</p>
<p>	“Rufus, you know anything about someone called Angeal?”</p>
<p>Rufus is someone who knows how to conceal his reactions, but he must be so caught off guard he can’t help but give away his recognition. There’s a slight pause, and a glint in his eye as he notes a potential foothold. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time.”</p>
<p>	“Who is he?”</p>
<p>	“He was a SOLDIER 1st Class. One of the few. I don’t know much more than that.” At Cloud’s suspicious look he shrugs and adds, “Before my time.”</p>
<p>	“What do you know, then?”</p>
<p>Rufus looks at him, and Cloud can sense him attaching strings to his information before he gives the bait. “I know that he was friends with Sephiroth. I know that he defected from the company. The details, however, you’d have to ask someone else.”</p>
<p>Cloud sighs. “I take it you know that ‘someone else’?”</p>
<p>Rufus gives the barest hint of a smile. “I do. Tseng. He was assigned to several of those missions back then. Shame he’s not here. I’ll be sure to let him know of your interest. As a gesture of goodwill.”</p>
<p>And then Reno is bursting his way back into the room, suggesting they could rebuild ShinRa together. Cloud takes that as his opening to leave while he has it and doesn’t give Rufus Shinra’s proposals another consideration, even with the promise of information he dangled in front of him.</p>
<p>All he really got is confirmation that Angeal was in SOLDIER, which Cloud already suspected. He wasn’t expecting to hear something like he was friends with Sephiroth. The entire concept of Sephiroth being friendly, let alone actual friends, with another person is so foreign he can’t begin to fathom it.</p>
<p>That he was a 1st Class, however, is unexpected but unsurprising. SOLDIER as a division was always overshadowed by Sephiroth. His strength and accomplishments overshadowed all others other members might as well not have even existed. Not outside of Midgar, anyway.</p>
<p>It was different, he thinks, in the city, where ShinRa employees as a whole were a common part of daily life. Those memories of Cloud’s are muddied, though, and if he focuses on them too long they turn into something that can’t be called memories.</p>
<p>The main takeaway, which he partially suspected already, is that as a SOLDIER 1st Class at that time he would have almost certainly known Zack. They would have talked and worked together, been comrades in a way Cloud never was. It makes sense that as things are now, Zack would want to stick close to him.</p>
<p>Except he was with Kadaj, and there’s nothing Cloud can make of that other than it’s probably not good.</p>
<p>Zack is alive. Angeal is too, though Cloud can only assume he was dead.</p>
<p>Is it a sign that Sephiroth is back too? Or that he’s on his way back.</p>
<p>Would Cloud know if he was returning? Does he know already, and just not realize that he knows?</p>
<p>Either way is unnerving.</p>
<p>Cloud returns to the church to regroup and sort through his options, only to find Tifa injured and unconscious in the flowerbed. Beside her is Zack, kneeled and tending to her wounds as best he can.</p>
<p>Cloud rushes over, pulling her onto his lap. On the surface there’s nothing severe, mostly bruises and nothing obviously broken.</p>
<p>	“What happened?”</p>
<p>	“It was Loz. He’s a Sephiroth clone. Well, kind of. He took the little girl. Marlene, I think?”</p>
<p>	“He’s—what?” Cloud forces himself to stop and process the bits of information he just heard. A Sephiroth clone. And he took Marlene.</p>
<p>His mouth goes dry, and he wants to kick himself for not seeing this coming. How could he not? With everything that’s been happening. His heart pounds, then races, and his infected arm throbs with it. The pain grows, sharpens, until it feels like his arm is going to pop and he doubles over to the sound of Zack calling his name.</p>
<p>Cloud tries to hold on to consciousness, push through the pain because he should be able to do that much, but in the end it’s useless.</p>
<p>Next thing he knows he’s roused slowly into life. The dull burn in his arm is dragged along but disappears the moment he opens his eyes. He pulls himself up, then to his feet, and finds Tifa in the bed across from him. Under the artificial lighting she looks better and worse.</p>
<p>From behind him comes Reno’s voice, saying, “You know, you’re pretty heavy.”</p>
<p>Turning around he finds him and Rude, and he definitely sees some judgment in their eyes. As if they’re in any position to look down on him or his choices.</p>
<p>	“Where’s Zack?”</p>
<p>	“The weird kid from the church? Around.”</p>
<p>	“Reno,” he says in warning.</p>
<p>Reno glances at Rude. “He’s not one of the kids who live here. Is he? Shouldn’t you be asking about them first? Don’t think we go around squeezing kids now, do you?”</p>
<p>	“Just tell me.”</p>
<p>	“Jeez. Touchy. He ran off a while ago. Didn’t say where he was going. Just that he’d be back.”</p>
<p>	“Did he say anything else?”</p>
<p>Reno exchanges another look with Rude. “Nothing that made much sense.”</p>
<p>Cloud sighs.</p>
<p>	“There weren’t any kids here, by the way. When we arrived. In case you were wondering.”</p>
<p>	“You don’t care?” Rude asks when Cloud says nothing.</p>
<p>Cloud doesn’t have to justify or explain himself to the Turks of all people. But he feels compelled to. Or maybe it’s more to himself, or Tifa, rather than them. He knows already, though, that nothing he has to say will hold up under scrutiny. All of it will simply leave him exposed in the most unpleasant ways.</p>
<p>Reno scoffs. “You’re a real handful”</p>
<p>The two of them exit the room, leaving Cloud alone to let his nerves and guilt consume him. </p>
<p>It takes more time than it has any right to for Cloud to put himself together enough to go downstairs. The pair of Turks have made themselves comfortable at the bar, having poured themselves drinks while they discuss their next move. They agree without much fuss when Cloud asks if they’ll keep an eye out for Denzel. </p>
<p>That leaves him to prepare himself for when Tifa wakes. The conclusions she’ll have come to about his actions is not something he wants to confront, especially not now. The time for it was weeks ago, and now Cloud has no choice but to take it on now. It’s something he brought upon himself by running away in the first place.</p>
<p>It is not as if Cloud wants to die. That is not a prospect he has sought. It’s also not something he looks forward to. The issue is simply that he continuously slips through the cracks. His life is so brittle and incidental that despite the odds he survives time and time again. He is someone who would be left standing as the ones he loves die around him. That’s the sort of existence he occupies. </p>
<p>The things that are worse than death leave him stronger every time, but that strength only makes the ones left at his side suffer.</p>
<p>That’s the cycle of his life. Over and over, repeating with worsening intensity every time. Why should it stop now?</p>
<p>What does moving on mean when every new beginning is the same?</p>
<p>How do you prevent that suffering when it's beyond your control every time?</p>
<p>The worst and expected outcome isn’t that Cloud will die. It’s that Denzel and all the other kids infected will die while Cloud’s life persists.</p>
<p>When Tifa tells him to choose between them and a memory he doesn’t know how to convey that it’s not that simple. The past and the present are not so clearly defined in his mind. They overlap and intersect in ways they shouldn’t, and nothing of who he is exists without them. If they’re pulled apart he doesn’t know what he’ll be left with.</p>
<p>All he can ever do is move forward and try to be better than he was the day before.</p>
<p>He knows it’s never good enough. That’s why he has to continue trying, because he’s still here and it has to matter.</p>
<p>When Reno and Rude return they say that a bunch of kids with geostigma, including Denzel, were rounded up by Kadaj’s gang and likely taken to their base in the Forgotten City.</p>
<p>By the time Cloud’s readied his bike and is about to head off Zack hasn’t returned. There are things he wants to ask him, but they can wait. For now he can be grateful that he wasn’t taken and isn’t going to be. Even if they come back Cloud won’t let them.</p>
<p>A fight breaks out soon after his arrival, naturally. While they are not normal humans, they are by no means Sephiroth. Fighting them is nothing like fighting him at any point. Nothing about them calls him to mind beyond the hair and eyes.</p>
<p>They fight with calculation, timing their attacks to give each other time to recuperate before launching the next move. This leaves Cloud pressured, and in the midst of the fight it shows how out of practice he is. Taking out monsters doesn’t keep you sharp for battles like these.</p>
<p>While he’s able to fend the two off, it’s apparent he is not going to win in the end. Not in the convincing way he needs to collect the kids.</p>
<p>Then, there’s Kadaj, who lets his brothers handle most of the fight. As Cloud’s stamina starts to dip he ups his force. His movements and blows come with urgency, as if he’s the one with a disadvantage. He swings his blade like he’s trying to grind himself down into dust.</p>
<p>Cloud is able to keep up at first, but his focus slips as his geostigma gives occasional throbs, throwing him off balance. He has no choice but to plan an escape. Just as he’s doing so, and Kadaj is bringing his sword down on him with a smile, a force comes from the side and blows Kadaj away.</p>
<p>Cloud catches himself and finds his stance. When he looks up he finds Angeal standing before him, weaponless, facing Kadaj while the brothers point their guns at him.</p>
<p>Attached to Angeal’s back is a single pristine white wing. </p>
<p>Cloud stares at it, his throat tight, images of Sephiroth flashing in his head.</p>
<p>	“What do you think you’re doing?”</p>
<p>Kadaj bristles and swings out his blade but Angeal doesn’t so much as flinch. “You! I already told you. We’re looking for Mother.”</p>
<p>	“You’re not completely wrong. But you’re not right. Do you know why you’re looking for her?”</p>
<p>	“The Reunion,” Kadaj says firmly. “We’ve had this conversation.”</p>
<p>	“We have. And you still don’t understand a thing. Her cells aren’t going to make you whole. Not in the way you think they will.”</p>
<p>Kadaj seethes. He points his sword at Angeal. “What would you know?”</p>
<p>Angeal just looks at him, and then he says, “If you don’t know, Sephiroth must not want you to. But then, we’re not really talking about Sephiroth anymore are we.” He raises an arm into the air, palm up. There’s no crackling, no build up magic, but the brothers tense like there is. “If all those with Sephiroth’s cells are your siblings, then you might call me a cousin.”</p>
<p>In the blink of an eye they are surrounded by monsters, griffons and hounds, maybe ten of each, but they don’t look normal. They’re grey all over, even where grey wouldn’t ordinarily be. There’s some gold, too, and they look wrong in ways he can’t quite identify, like lab experiments. When he looks closely at one, he thinks he can see an imprint of Angeal’s face.</p>
<p>Kadaj’s brothers no longer know where they should be pointing their guns, switching from one target to another without prompting. They seem to settle on Angeal, finally, but when they do the monsters closest to them snap at them and they change target once again.</p>
<p>Kadaj looks around, confirming that they’re surrounded, and then turns to Angeal with a scowl. “What is this?”</p>
<p>	“You would consider it a gift from your ‘mother.’” Angeal chuckles at that, but the humor leaves his face in an instant. “I’ll tell you again. You should stop. But then… I suppose you don’t have much choice in that, do you.”</p>
<p>Just like that, as if his words are a trigger, the monsters spring forward all at once. The brothers fight with them at first, but there’s not an upperhand to be had. They manage to strike down a few of the monsters, but shortly after they’re replaced with more that seem to come out from nowhere.</p>
<p>In the end they have to retreat on their bikes, the monsters chasing after them and leaving the children behind.</p>
<p>Once they’re gone Angeal turns to where Cloud is still kneeled and extends his hand. He keeps it out even while Cloud assesses him. Whether he’s an ally or not in the end, he is in this moment, so he pulls himself up with the offered hand.</p>
<p>He doesn’t know what to say. Or rather, he doesn’t know what to say first.</p>
<p>He doesn’t have to worry about it, either, because Marlene rushes over and grabs his sleeve. “Cloud, what about Tifa?”</p>
<p>Cloud glances at her but finds it hard to keep his eyes off Angeal for too long. The man is just standing there, waiting for him to be done with his business and ask what he’s going to ask. “She’s alright.”</p>
<p>	“I wanna talk to her.”</p>
<p>He pulls his phone out and dials the number before handing the phone over to her. While he’s busy with that a voice from the side asks, “Who are you?” And when Cloud turns his head Vincent is there, staring at Angeal.</p>
<p>Well, isn’t he just in time.</p>
<p>Angeal sighs. “Angeal Hewley.”</p>
<p>Vincent keeps staring at him.</p>
<p>	“I think it’s time you tell me what’s going,” Cloud says. “What are you trying to accomplish? What is Kadaj? Zack said they’re some type of Sephiroth clone.”</p>
<p>	“They are and they aren’t. They don’t possess S-cells, or even Jenova cells, but they are undoubtedly extensions of him and his will.”</p>
<p>	“Then, their goal is…?” He can already feel a pit in his stomach. Sephiroth’s will. Sephiroth’s goal. He already knows.</p>
<p>	“They don’t have a goal. They’re only following instinct. As for Sephiroth… it’s either world domination or revenge, right? After he’s successfully materialized, that is.”</p>
<p>	“After he’s materialized?”</p>
<p>	“Jenova still exists on this planet. Those three may not be able to sense its presence or react to it, but they know.”</p>
<p>	“And what about you, what are you really after here?”</p>
<p>Angeal’s mouth twitches into a half-smile. “They’re tormenting the world. That makes them my enemy.”</p>
<p>	“That doesn’t tell me anything.”</p>
<p>	“I didn’t choose to be here, Cloud. I’m making the best of the hand I was dealt. After this is over I don’t know what will happen.”</p>
<p>With that, Angeal’s white wing starts to flap. It pulls him into the sky and out of sight before Cloud can formulate how to react to anything he said. As he goes white feathers scatter around them like raindrops, and Marlene catches one of them.</p>
<p>	“That man,” Vincent says from the side to get his attention.</p>
<p>	“You know him, Vincent?”</p>
<p>Vincent shakes his head. “No. But I knew of his mother. Gillian. She was part of a project competing with Hojo’s.” He gives Cloud a pointed look.</p>
<p>Cloud has seen and heard enough to put the pieces together. Angeal is the same as Sephiroth. Claiming anything else amounts to willful ignorance. Another progeny of Jenova, but this one acting independently and apparently against her. For now.</p>
<p>Cloud sighs and looks out over the vacant eyed children gathered around the lake. Of course. Sephiroths all over the place. Isn’t it just his luck. He rubs his forehead, but then from the corner of his eye sees Denzel.</p>
<p>	“What did Tifa say?” He asks as they make their way over.</p>
<p>	“That she’s waiting for us to come home. You are coming home, right, Cloud?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah. I’m coming home.”</p>
<p>	“Good. She also told me to tell you that Zack is there.”</p>
<p>Cloud’s breath catches and he nods his head. He wonders if he’ll still be there when they get back. Now that Angeal has revealed himself it’s not unreasonable to assume he’ll disappear. Will he take Zack with him? Does Zack even know about him?</p>
<p>None of the kids react as they pass. They don’t twitch, don’t sway, don’t follow them with their eyes. They simply stand at attention, utterly motionless like mannequins.</p>
<p>Denzel isn’t an exception. There’s no acknowledgement to name, to a gentle shake, or a hand holding his. His geostigma is still there, and it doesn’t look visibly worse from what Cloud can remember.</p>
<p>“What did they do?” he wonders to himself.</p>
<p>	“I think they activated it in them. The Sephiroth gene, S-cells, Jenova’s memetic legacy, whatever you want to call it. The instinct for their Reunion.”</p>
<p>Cloud furrows his brow. How does that work? Cloud doesn’t think he feels it. Not that he’s trying to. If anything he’d want to block it out, but there’s nothing.</p>
<p>	“The stigma,” Vincent continues. “It’s a symptom of alien matter infesting the body. The body tries to eliminate it and overcompensates, resulting in the illness.”</p>
<p>	“In that case, wasn’t it already activated?”</p>
<p>	“Apparently not,” Vincent says as he looks over the unresponsive group.</p>
<p>	“How do you know all this?”</p>
<p>	“Tseng and Elena. They were brought here half-dead. I did what I could to save them, but they’ll be feeling it for some time.”</p>
<p>	“They’re here now, then?”</p>
<p>Vincent nods.</p>
<p>	“Alright. Maybe we’ll take them with us when we bring these kids back to Edge. I want to have a talk with Shinra, anyway. Care to help with the delivery, Vincent?”</p>
<p>Vincent hums his agreement, and the two of them set off loading the kids into the trucks Kadaj’s group left behind. Just like Denzel they don’t resist being touched or moved. They don’t follow instructions, but they walk if nudged forward.</p>
<p>They’re nothing like the clones from back then, who wandered aimlessly or groaned in illness, mumbling about the Reunion that was yet to beckon them. Maybe it just hasn’t set in completely, and once it has they’ll start dragging their feet to… he doesn’t know where. Wherever the remnants of Jenova are? A location of Sephiroth’s choosing for his rebirth?</p>
<p>It must be Edge, right? Most of the geostigma cases are located there or originated there, but maybe it’s as a result of Meteor. It would be most convenient anyway.</p>
<p>While Cloud finishes loading up the dozens of kids across the two trucks, Vincent collects Tseng and Elena. To say they look roughed up is putting it lightly, but they’re capable of walking without. The two of them take note of Cloud but don’t give him much beyond a basic greeting.</p>
<p>After confirming that they’re able, the two of them drive the trucks while Cloud takes his bike.</p>
<p>He arrives before the Turks, so he, Vincent, and Marlene go to Seventh Heaven to regroup.</p>
<p>Inside the bar Tifa and Zack are waiting for them.</p>
<p>	“Tifa, we’re home,” Marlene calls out as she leads Denzel into the bar.</p>
<p>Tifa rushes over and leans over to get a look at him. She recoils when she sees his face, his eyes. “What happened?”</p>
<p>Cloud explains what happened to the best of his ability. That Kadaj and his brothers took Denzel and other kids infected with geostigma to the Forgotten City, that geostigma is an infection caused by Jenova, and that they’re looking to carry out a reunion to revive Sephiroth.</p>
<p>	“That sound about right to you?” Cloud asks Zack upon reaching the end. It comes out more exasperated than he intends, but he’s tired of not knowing things. He’s tired of everything being dropped on him all at once. He’s tired of not knowing what to do except wait for the inevitable battle.</p>
<p>Zacks sits up straight from behind the bar, startled. The bar spoon in his hand clatters to the counter. His fingers twitch as all the eyes in the room turn to him. “Um.” His eyes flick this way and that as he goes over what Cloud said. “Yeah. Pretty much.”</p>
<p>Cloud sighs and puts a hand to his forehead. “What the hell is going on? Why is this happening?”</p>
<p>	“...Because Jenova doesn’t belong here, but was able to infect the lifestream anyway.”</p>
<p>	“Then, what, it’ll never end?”</p>
<p>	“Maybe not. But it’ll get better. Because even if the ones you love are gone their memories and emotions live on in the lifestream, and… yeah.”</p>
<p>Cloud stares hard at Zack, who shuffles under the scrutiny. “What about you?”</p>
<p>	“What about me?”</p>
<p>	“Are you really here? Or are you… there.”</p>
<p>	“I’m here. I think I am anyway. I mean, I have geostigma so I must be, right? With a real body and all.” He grips his shirt over his heart and pulls at it. Distress crosses his face but he shakes it away. “Anyway, what’s the plan? Now that the gang’s all here.”</p>
<p>	“Is the gang all here?” At Zack’s blank look he adds, “Angeal.”</p>
<p>	“Oh. You wouldn’t expect it, but he kind of has a habit of running off. Not that I can blame him when I look like this. But I’m like eight, he really shouldn’t expect me to sit still.”</p>
<p>	“Zack.” The tone comes to him easily these days, but Cloud feels strange using the kind he might with Marlene or Denzel if they were trying to get out of something.</p>
<p>	“Right. He’s trying to stop them, too. But it’s tricky, because they aren’t really Sephiroth. So even if they’re stopped, who’s to say another trio of them won’t pop up a couple years from now.”</p>
<p>	“Then we stop them again. As many times as we need to,” Tifa says, stepping forward.</p>
<p>Zack smiles at her, but it’s weak. “I’ll call Angeal,” he says, pulling out a phone and rushing up the stairs.</p>
<p>Vincent looks between Cloud and Tifa with his brows slightly raised.</p>
<p>	“Who was that?” Marlene asks. </p>
<p>Tifa looks like she’s about to say, but then falters and looks to Cloud.</p>
<p>	“He’s a friend.”</p>
<p>	“He’s sick too? Do you think he’ll end up like Denzel?” She looks at him and tugs his hand uselessly.</p>
<p>	“No...” Cloud trails off, remembering how weeks ago Zack said Angeal had been treating his geostigma somehow. Considering what he knows now it might not be sham after all. “I don’t think he’ll end up like Denzel, and we’re going to find a cure for him. Both of them.”</p>
<p>	“And you, too, Cloud.”</p>
<p>Cloud tries but can’t offer a smile in response to that. Maybe he’s just too tired.</p>
<p>After that, Tifa and Marlene take Denzel upstairs to put him to bed, leaving Cloud and Vincent alone in the bar.</p>
<p>Vincent looks at him until Cloud takes the initiative to explain. “You remember how I thought I was a SOLDIER 1st Class?”</p>
<p>Vincent nods.</p>
<p>	“He’s why.”</p>
<p>Vincent’s expression does not change, but he processes that for a beat before asking, “Is it Hojo?”</p>
<p>Cloud takes a breath to refute that but stops short upon realizing that, for all he knows, Hojo could very well be the reason for Zack’s current state. He could be the reason why Zack is here at all. And not just Zack, but Angeal as well. This may not even be the Zack who sacrificed himself so Cloud could live.</p>
<p>Does it even matter? Whatever the case he is Zack Fair, and he knows Cloud.</p>
<p>He swallows, and instead of admitting his uncertainty says, “I don’t think so. But whatever the situation is, we can worry about it after we’ve dealt with Kadaj.”</p>
<p>Vincent says nothing. Then, he says, “You’re right.” And turns for the door.</p>
<p>	“Where are you going?”</p>
<p>	“To look. Rufus Shinra is here. Kadaj and his gang are probably going to look for him. They think he knows where Jenova is.”</p>
<p>	“Does he?”</p>
<p>	“I believe so.”</p>
<p>With Vincent gone, Cloud first goes to check on Denzel, whose condition hasn’t improved but doesn’t seem to have gotten worse, either. That’s not great considering he’s basically catatonic, staring ahead seeing nothing, reacting to nothing.</p>
<p>He has neither hope nor answers to offer Tifa and Marlene, but both find his presence reassuring, which is more than he deserves.</p>
<p>When he goes to his room he finds Zack leaning against the windowsill looking out at the street below.</p>
<p>	“Zack, I want to ask you something.”</p>
<p>Zack turns to him, with his head tilted in a manner that makes him look very young. “What is it?”</p>
<p>	“When we first spoke you said that Angeal treats your geostigma. Will whatever it is help Denzel?”</p>
<p>Zack hops from one foot to another as he considers what to say. Since they first interacted Cloud didn’t know how to read his behavior and he still doesn’t. He wants to chalk it up to his ambiguous state, but the truth might be that Cloud just doesn’t know him.</p>
<p>	“It’s not a cure. I still have it. See?” Zack lifts up his shirt to reveal the mottled, sickly skin covering his side. “It’s just… when it gets bad Angeal gives me some of his cells. To balance them out.”</p>
<p>	“His… cells?” Cloud can’t help making a face.</p>
<p>Zack laughs. “It’s not that dramatic or complicated. But. It’s not a solution. It won’t fix this. And it won’t fix him.”</p>
<p>	“Do you know if there is a cure?”</p>
<p>	“Hm. I don’t think it’s ready yet.”</p>
<p>	“But you’re saying there is one.”</p>
<p>	“You shouldn’t underestimate the lifestream, Cloud.”</p>
<p>Cloud just looks at him. Then, he sighs and mutters, “Clearly.”</p>
<p>	“Hey, don’t be so glum. Everything’s gonna work out. You know it too, don’t you?”</p>
<p>He doesn’t know it. But at the same time he doesn’t feel dread about whatever battle is coming their way.</p>
<p>When Cloud looks away from him he spots the work he left behind on his desk, the endless notes that amounted to nothing and medical texts he could barely get through. He drops into the chair with another sigh.</p>
<p>	“Don’t worry, Cloud. After Angeal gets here we’ll work out our next move.”</p>
<p>Cloud can only muster up a hum in response.</p>
<p>Zack places himself in front of him and waits for Cloud to give him his attention. “It should be easy, right? Even if it is Sephiroth. You beat him before. I believe in you, Cloud. And besides, I’m here to help, too.”</p>
<p>Cloud looks at him, at the brightness of his smile, and somehow part of him does feel lighter. Returning the smile is too hard to manage, though. “Thanks, Zack. I appreciate it.”</p>
<p>	“No problem. We’ll catch you if you fall.” He holds his small hand out to him, and Cloud can’t help but wonder how he’d catch anything.</p>
<p>Cloud swears to himself, silently, that this time when Zack falls he’ll be there to catch him with both arms at the ready.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>we stop here, because sometimes you write many thousands more words than you intend and don't want to go through an entire movie anyway. Also fight scenes and divergence...</p>
<p>umm if you’re curious about some of my nonsense, I am creating a justification like, the differences in the S and G projects that made Sephiroth physically stronger also enabled Jenova to influence his mind more easily. So Angeal is less powerful but also capable of maintaining his sense of self and recognizing certain impulses as something not originating from within him. That said, in my context I think he would be swallowed up if he came into direct contact with Jenova. With some Battle Within the Mind shenanigans.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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